A Certainty

...and be sure your sin will find you out. Numbers 32:23 ESV

Benjamin Franklin, said, “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes” but let me add another certainty according to the Bible, and that is a source we can trust. Cast your mind back to your Sunday School days, and I am guessing one of the verses used a lot would be this one. Stories aimed at the younger mind would be told to emphasise the fact that we can’t hide from God and whatever sin we committed, that very sin would be our undoing. It was true then, and it stays true today.

We can bring it up to date, and right into our day and age. How about replacing the word ‘sin’ with your own failing? So the verse becomes, “..be sure your (???) will find you out.” All we have to do now is be truthful enough to add the sin that so easily trips us up (Hebrews 12:1) and prepare ourselves for the consequences.

The sins that trip us up aren’t always the big ones. With good living and good judgement we can usually avoid major sins, but what about the little foxes that ‘ruin everything’ (Solomon 2:15)? Pride that becomes an obsession? Opinion that turns into arrogance? Trust that becomes suspicion? A balanced lifestyle that changes into being a single sided, critical one? An all round knowledge that morphs into a know-it-all attitude? The list could go on, and you could add some of your own thoughts too.

The certainty of our sin finding us out, is surely followed by the certainty that others will see, and be affected by some of these little ‘foxes’ more than we know. But we can rise above this as we were taught all those years ago and deal with those ‘little sins’ before they grow into the off-putting big sins, by placing them on the altar and letting God deal with them, and in turn, with us. I fear there are more ‘little sins’ than we can ever know, and no one is exempt. That’s the certainty of the little sin catching every one of us out, and you can be sure it will!